There seem to be suggestions that Andrea and I know the affiliation of
those who hacked us. We don't and by policy I haven't speculated. Part
of the reason for my reticence is that some, although not all, of the
hackers have been polite to us. In particular, at no point did the hackers claim association.with any religion.

We have also made no public assessment of our Web host for
Egyptological. Were the site to reappear it would be with a different
host, but we needed to swap hosts anyway on grounds of capacity/economy.

We are grateful for the offers of assistance, thank you. I will share
those emailed to me with Andrea next week. I am however reluctant to
share any further details of what has happened with anybody to avoid
the risk of a third party politicising the issue. By policy
Egyptological was apolitical and respectful of all religions. If there is to be any future, we will retain those principles. And perhaps the times when principles matter most are in the face of adversity.

Thanks for all the best wishes. If it is possible for News From the
Valley of the Kings to return it will, but if nothing else the time
taken up by the hack has made posting here impractical over the next
couple of months and my study time is likely to be devoted to Web
security rather than Egyptology over the next several weeks. If there
is a major discovery I would probably break my silence but otherwise I
would expect this blog to be quiet in terms of news until the summer at
least while I catch the rest of my life back up.

This is something new to me. For about two generations between 190BC and 130BC some people volunteered to become temple slaves, says Dr Kim Ryholt -see Sci News. Apparently it was preferable to conscription as forced hard labour by the king. Apparently most of those who volunteered as temple slaves were unable to name their fathers.

Italian archaeologists have had an unexpected find while working at the Temple of Amenhotep II. By the Serapeum they have discovered five tombs from the Third Intermediate Period. The highlight seems to be the find of canopic jars - picture on Ahram with a few more details.

(Sorry I have been quiet. As I mentioned before Christmas, Egyptological was targeted by mistake during the tit-for-tat hacks of Egyptian and Israeli government sites. I took Christmas off then had to completely wipe my laptop to be certain no esoteric malware was lurking unseen by my anti-virus programmes. My laptop is back in commission now but I still have things to reload. We are also in the process of restoring Egyptological and security hardening it. We hadn't expected an Eyptology site to be a political target for hacktivists but the experience has show how easy it is to get caught up in the crossfire.)

Kate and Andrea are very sad to announce that Egyptological will be unavailable for the forseeable future. It has been targeted by a professional hacking group as part of an onslaught on Egypt-related web sites during the current unrest in Egypt.

Although we have been in negotiations with the hackers, which seemed to be going well, they have now announced their intention of resuming hostilities against us. They apparently see Egyptology sites such as ours as representing a form of political threat.

Until we have been able to assess the level of damage inflicted upon our backup solution, and have been able to devise a new strategy for the future security of Egyptological, our site will remain unavailable. We do not expect it to be recovered until the end of January.

Please be aware, however, that we are fully committed to restoring Egyptological to its former state, together with the latest unpublished edition of the Magazine, and we are investigating the possibility of publishing a temporary archive at an earlier date.

We recommend that anyone with similar web sites should upgrade their own security arrangements, as you may now be interpreted as representing a political or religious affiliation.

As predicted, KV62 is to remain closed to tourist access in a move many will see as sensible. The replica tomb is presently on display in Cairo but will be erected in Luxor in due course to take over as the destination for tourists.

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I love Ancient Egypt, enjoy backgammon chouette, photography and travel ... and I'm trying to get my late father's photos online. Please visit my main profile where you will also find links to Facebook and more about my interests.
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Kate Phizackerley

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